Our Leadership Insights

Why it’s crucial to manage your emotional state Most of us inwardly grimace at the idea of managing a situation involving conflict. It’s unsurprising that our emotional state can easily undermine our ability to manage difficult conversations. In fact, most leaders feel this way (as we explain here). The secret to success is simple. Acknowledge […]

Why having difficult conversations is so difficult! As our earlier blog explains, most of us have a lot of emotional baggage when it comes to the idea of conflict. It’s a term used to describe everything from a minor disagreement (whether in the workplace or at home) through to a full-scale armed war between nations. […]

Our physical response to difficult conversations Difficult conversations cause us to not only experience uncomfortable emotions, they also can prompt a physical response. As tensions rise, some common reactions include your palms beginning to sweat and your breathing becoming shorter and more rapid. Perhaps your shoulders tense in anticipation of the need to defend your […]

Why we form habits In order to save energy, our brain constantly tries to turn our repeated thinking into habits. As leaders, we obviously want those hard-wired behaviours to be useful ones! Habits are created through a neurological feedback loop involving the repetition of a 4-step process – cue, craving, response, reward. Take this example: […]

Why our memory matters Understanding some of the neuroscience that underpins our productivity allows you to identify the optimal structure to the way you work. For simplicity’s sake, let’s focus on our two different types of memory: Working memory – driven by our pre-frontal cortex, this is where we engage in higher-level thinking, learning and […]

Why mindset matters As you may recall from our previous article, taking a traditional approach when giving employee feedback is likely to put your employees in an ‘away’ state. (Recap our discussion about why neuroscience matters here.) In an ‘away’ mindset, people are more likely to be defensive – even if we attempt to sandwich […]